Earlier this month Fred again.. kicked off his buzzy 10 shows in 10 weeks in 10 cities run, a peripatetic endeavor happening as part of the release of his USB002 project.
The English producer is releasing one song from USB002 in tandem with each week’s show, with UBS002 itself being an an evolution of USB001, which collected Fred hits including “Jungle,” “Baby Again” with Skrillex and Four Tet, “Lights Out” with Romy and Haai, “Rumble” with Skrillex and “Turn On The Lights Again..” with Swedish House Mafia and Future.
USB002 thus far promises to be as star-studded, with the first song of the project being a collab with Aussie rock band Amyl and the Sniffers and additional releases featuring Danny Brown, Beam and Skin On Skin. (The Amyl and the Sniffers release, “you’re a star,” this week debuted on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs at No. 7.)
Meanwhile, the show’s special guests have been equally high caliber, with the first three performances welcoming fellow producers including Haai, Yousuke Yukimatsu, a trio of local Belgian producers and Spanish artists Drea and Toccororo.
If you’re not seeing much internet footage from these performances it’s because this run of shows is effectively phone-free, with fans in each city having a sticker put over their phone cameras upon arrival to maximize presence and participation. For production, the run features an installation by Dutch artist and composer Boris Acket, who contributed one of his billowing, parachute type works to the shows.
See exclusive photos from each week’s show below, with this story updating after every performance.
Week 1: Glasgow, Scotland
Image Credit: Sam Neill
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Fred’s 10-show run launched in Glasgow, Scotland, on Oct. 3, the same day the producer released his first song from USB002, “You’re a Star,” with Aussie rock punk Amyl and the Sniffers. Happening at the city’s Scottish Events Center, the show featured a pair of special guests: Japanese producer Yousuke Yukimatsu and Australia-born, U.K.-based artist Haai, with whom Fred shared an all smiles group photo with after the show.
Week 2: Brussels, Belgium
Image Credit: Courtesy of Huxley
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As Fred had revealed days prior, the second 10/10/10 tour stop happened at Gare Maritime in Brussels, Belgium on Friday, Oct. 10. The show happened in tandem with the producer’s second release from USB002, “OGdub.”
The track is a collaboration with frequent collaborators Parisi, along with Beam and hip-hop favorite Danny Brown, with Fred writing on Instagram that that “I’ve been listening to danny brown for yearssss, since i was 16 i reckon?! i remember when he first came out wit the hybrid and being like wait this feels enitrely [sic] new to me. this samples his song burfict wit jpegmafia which is an absolutely wild slice of audio. its like a horn fugue that then goes into a punk band that then drops unreasonably hard and jus keeepsss going.”
With Fred welcoming special guests for each of the 10/10/10 shows, the night featured support from local artists Kōma, Lauravioli, DC Noises and Shoplifter. As with the entirety of this tour, attendees of this set had stickers put over their phone cameras, to maintain an intimate and present atmosphere at the show.
Week 3: Madrid, Spain
Image Credit: Theo Batterham
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For its third week, the tour moved south to Madrid, Spain, for an Oct. 17 show at IFEMA Madrid. The night’s special guests were Spanish producers Drea and Toccororo along with the South Sudan-born, France-based Skin On Skin. The latter guest did double duty, also working on one of the two tracks Fred dropped that same day. This release included Fred’s remix of “The Floor” and Skin On Skin’s remix of the same song. (And no, you’re not tripping if you’d can’t find the original version. There isn’t one.)
“right at the beginning of working on this song me and skinOnskin sent each other what we’d done and we realised we’d both taken it kinda opposite directions,” Fred wrote on YouTube of the two tracks on YouTube. “what was funny is i think i had kinda taken it to a place that reminded of what i loved about his music. and hed kinda done the same the other way round wit my music. so then we thought what if theres no original. and we jus put out both as 2 remixes of our own song. a song by us, remixed by him and remixed by me. i really love creating this sort of emotional duality wit something cos like well you can hear how tooootally different they feel.”
Week 4: Lyon, France
Image Credit: Theo Batterham
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On Friday, Oct. 24 Fred played Lyon’s Halle Tony Garnier alongside Caribou and Floating Points, his collaborators on the day’s USB002 releases “Facilita” and “Ambery.” “It’s a total dream for me to get to release music with these two legends,” Fred wrote on Instagram of this new music and attendant set. “Last night we got to play together in Lyon and we were all really stunned by it ykno.”
The night’s set also contained an Easter egg about Fred’s next move, with Fred playing Daft Punk’s “Digital Love,” a clue that was compounded when Fred also wrote that “tonight something else is happening in Paris that I can barely type.”
That something else became instant dance music history, with Fred appearing alongside Busy P, Erol Alkan and Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter in Paris on the evening of Oct. 25. The set marked Bangalter’s first DJ set in 16 years, with the occasion being Because Beaubourg, a retrospective exhibition celebrating the 20-year history of Because Music.
“Last night I got to play with Thomas Bangalter, Erol Alkan, Busy P at the Pompidou Centre in Paris, the last night before it closes for 5 years,” Fred wrote of the show on Instagram. “Thomas told me in this lift on the way down to the show that the first time he fell in love with electronic music was in this building in 1992. He also told me hasn’t played a proper set without the mask on for 24 years. I didn’t know what to say to either of those things and I still don’t.”
Fred’s next USB002 performances will be this weekend in Dublin, with the producer saying that the song released in tandem will be hardstyle.
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